A New Beginning
by chocolatequeen
Summary: When the Doctor took Rose to New Earth for their first adventure after his regeneration, he didn't know it would bring some things he'd kept secret to the surface. In which Lady Cassandra is unwittingly helpful. Sequel to Just Love Me; part of Glimpses of a Different Life.
1. Chapter 1

**AN:** My plan from the start was to use Just Love Me as the beginning of a new series. When the first prompt for 52 stories in 52 weeks was, "A story titled, 'A New Beginning,' I knew exactly what I wanted to write.

Nervous energy pulsed through the Doctor as he walked into the darkened console room. He draped his coat over a coral strut and walked slowly down the ramp towards the console, his hands flexing at his sides. It was January 3rd, 2007, and he and Rose were finally leaving the Powell Estate.

After New Year's Eve, after they'd finally straightened out all the misunderstandings between them, and after Rose had come home, he'd assumed they would leave the next day. Her desire to stay, "Just for a few more days, Doctor," had sent a tremor of unease through him, but he'd tamped it down and smiled his agreement.

But now… He rested his hand on the power control and took a deep breath. It was time to go. He threw the lever and something settled in his hearts when the time rotor lit up. From there, his fingers moved faster with each dial that needed to be adjusted, each switch that needed to be flipped.

 _Are you ready, old girl?_ he asked his TARDIS. She chimed happily, and when he twisted one more control, the time rotor started its slow chug up and down as she prepared to shift into the Time Vortex. The Doctor listened to the familiar wheezing sound of the engines, and he couldn't contain a wide grin.

The door opened, and his hearts stuttered when he caught sight of Rose. She was gorgeous, as always, but it was the way she looked at him that made him want to forget about the message he'd gotten on the psychic paper and carry her to his bedroom.

The brilliant smile on the Doctor's face stopped Rose in her tracks. Did he know what he did to her when he looked at her like that? The sly wink as he pulled the final lever and sent them into the Vortex suggested he did.

He nodded towards her usual spot at the console, and she accepted the invitation eagerly. She dropped her hat along with her bag and laid her coat down on top of the Doctor's before joining him. Her TARDIS flying lessons came back to her quickly, and she automatically moved to adjust the stabilisers when they hit some turbulence.

"So where are we going?" Rose asked once the ride had evened out.

"Further than we've ever gone before." His gleeful smile sent a thrill of excitement down Rose's spine. She'd _missed_ this, she realised—the travelling, the newness of everything, the excitement of seeing things no human of her time ever would.

"Oh, go on," she wheedled. "Tell me?" She took his hand and looked up at him with the smile she knew he couldn't resist.

The Doctor prided himself on being unbreakable, able to hold firm against all forms of coercion. But when Rose Tyler looked at him like that, with her head tilted slightly and her tongue just showing through her teeth, all his defences crumbled.

"Oh, all right." He sat down on the jump seat and tugged her down beside him. "So, the year five billion, the sun expands, the Earth gets roasted."

Rose bumped his shoulder with hers. "That was our first date."

"We had chips." He hummed happily when she laughed. "So anyway, planet gone, all rocks and dust, but the human race lives on, spread out across the stars. Soon as the Earth burns up, oh yeah, they get all nostalgic, big revival movement, but then find this place. Same size as the Earth, same air, same orbit. Lovely. Call goes out, the humans move in."

The TARDIS landed gently, and the Doctor jumped to his feet and grabbed his coat. He bounded down the ramp, then leaned against the doors and crossed his arms over his chest. "Come on then, Rose Tyler. Our adventure awaits."

Rose laughed at the Doctor's exuberance, but when she stepped out of the TARDIS onto the alien planet, awe silenced her. They'd landed in a meadow, and on the other side of a harbour, a futuristic city gleamed in the sun. Flying cars whizzed overhead, carrying people in and out of the metropolis.

A strong breeze blew hair into her face, and the Doctor brushed it back for her. Then he took her hand in his and turned to face the city.

"It's the year five billion and twenty three," he told her. "We're in the galaxy M87, and this? This is New Earth."

"That's just… That's just…" She laughed, unable to express the emotions coursing through her in any other way.

A happy sound came from the back of the Doctor's throat, and he squeezed her hand. "Not bad. Not bad at all."

"That's amazing," Rose breathed. "I'll never get used to this. Never." She let go of the Doctor's hand and bounced slightly, feeling the give of the springy turf. "Different ground beneath my feet, different sky." She paused when a new scent reached her nose. "What's that smell?"

The Doctor bent down and picked a handful of grass and brought it to her nose. "Apple grass."

Rose took a deep breath, and the crisp, fresh aroma of apples filled her nostrils. "Apple grass."

"Yeah, yeah." The Doctor smiled so widely that little crinkles formed around his eyes.

"It's beautiful." Rose stared at the Doctor for a long moment, enjoying his happiness. "Oh, I love this," she said as she slipped her arm through his. "Can I just say—travelling with you, I love it."

The Doctor's Adam's apple bobbed, and she thought he heard what she hadn't said. He faced her and used his free hand to brush her flyaway air back over her ear again before resting it gently on her neck.

"Me too," he whispered as he leaned in slowly.

"Yeah?" Rose searched his eyes, looking for a hint that he might love her as much as she loved him.

The affection there warmed and deepened. "Oh yes," he confirmed, and his lips were so close to hers that she could feel the breath from the words hit her mouth.

When Rose's eyelids fluttered closed, the Doctor crossed the last centimetre separating them and kissed her tenderly—just a soft press of his lips to hers. When she curved her body against his and grabbed onto his lapels, he rested a hand on the small of her back, holding her close.

A car buzzing close to their heads interrupted the kiss before it could become a full-on snog. The Doctor and Rose looked at each other for a moment, wide-eyed, then broke into peals of laughter.

"Come on!" He took her hand and ran across the meadow.

When they reached a flat spot that wasn't directly under a main flight path, he dropped her hand and took his coat off, spreading it out on the grass. Amusement twinkled in Rose's eyes as he flopped onto his back and crossed his feet at the ankles.

"Well? Are you just going to stand there?" He looked pointedly at the spot next to him.

Rose lay down beside him, her movements slightly more graceful than his had been. When she rested her head on his chest, the Doctor closed his eyes for a moment, then wrapped his arm more tightly around her shoulder, holding her securely against his side.

Her thoughts hummed at the edges of his awareness, and a muscle in his jaw flexed. Rose had always been slightly more telepathically open than the average human, but he hadn't realised that going into her mind to erase the memory of Bad Wolf would lay the groundwork for a telepathic connection between them.

And since she knew nothing about shielding, her mind constantly projected her thoughts towards him. It would be so easy to just lower his barriers and take a peek, but that would breach every rule of telepathic etiquette he'd been taught.

"Penny for 'em," he said after a moment, his curiosity getting the better of him.

Her head shifted on his shoulder. "What?"

"You're lost in thought somewhere."

"Oh." Rose pushed herself up on one elbow and looked down at her Doctor. How did this face look so right to her already, when she'd known it for less than two weeks?

She traced the high arch of his eyebrow and the strong line of his jaw, and curiosity sparked in his brown eyes. "You're so different," she murmured, even though it wasn't quite what she was thinking. "These laugh lines," she continued, lightly touching the skin near the corner of his eye. "You didn't have them before."

The Doctor looked up at her soberly. "Didn't have much to laugh about, me," he said, a hint of his old accent peeking through.

"And now you do?"

He sighed, and for a moment, his age showed in his eyes. "I regenerated into that body when the war ended," he said. "It was born of pain and loss."

"What about this one?"

Something flickered in his eyes, almost too fast for Rose to catch it. Then it disappeared, and the Doctor smiled at her. "Well, pretty much anything is happier than war, right?"

Rose looked down at him. "S'pose you've got a point there," she allowed. She knew, somehow, that the Doctor was hiding something from her. Her memory of the Game Station had remained hazy, but she remembered enough to know his glib answer about singing a song and making the Daleks run away was a lie.

She wanted to push for answers but the same instinct that told her he was hiding something told her to leave it alone—for now. _But eventually, Doctor, you'll tell me the truth._


	2. Chapter 2

Cassandra was the last person Rose had expected to see on New Earth—or ever, really. Staring at the flap of skin, she felt the heat from the dying sun searing through the shields of Platform One. If she was here, chances were good she was up to something. Even as she taunted Cassandra, Rose was working on a plan, one that started by getting to the Doctor and telling him who she'd found.

But as soon as the electrical charge caught her and held her in place, she knew there was more to Lady Cassandra's plan than she realised. The next few minutes were a jumble, and before she fully understood what had happened, she was locked away in a glass cage in her own mind, able to see and understand what was going on, but completely out of control.

Watching Cassandra prance around in the body that belonged to _her_ was maddening. "It's like being in a bouncy castle," she murmured in a posh version of Rose's own voice.

Rose scowled and wondered if it would be possible to get rid of her without harming herself. A bolt of pain in her head warned her that it wouldn't be easy.

"I can just about access the surface memory."

The sensation of another mind reaching into her memories without permission was a worse violation than watching Cassandra preen in front of the mirror or admire her own youthful body. She had the unnerving experience of watching them play out on a screen like a film, without actually having called the memory up herself.

Her heart leapt when she felt her phone ring. Maybe she could find some way to let the Doctor know there was something wrong. Rose smiled to herself at the thought of the Doctor's anger when he realised what Cassandra had done. The bitchy trampoline thought she'd won, but the idea that the Doctor would let her go was laughable.

But when Rose tried to push past the glass to communicate with the Doctor, she heard the low peel of a cloister bell, like the TARDIS used as a warning when something was very wrong. She frowned and tried again, but the bell shifted into a familiar hum.

Rose pressed her palm to the glass and tried to make sense of what the hum was saying. Finally, she got it.

 _You put me here, didn't you?_ She asked the TARDIS. _This is how you're keeping me safe from whatever Cassandra did to take over my body._

The ship chimed, and Rose sighed and slouched down onto the floor. She was safe, yeah, but without any way to talk to the Doctor. The TARDIS hummed around her, and Rose had to trust that she was right, and everything would soon be back the way it ought to to be.

oOoOoOoOo

The Doctor had no idea what had taken Rose so long to get to Ward 26, but as soon as she appeared, he dragged her around the floor, showing off the patients who were being miraculously healed.

"I need to find a terminal." He took her gently by the elbow and guided her towards the periphery of the room, hoping to find a workstation somewhere. "I've got to see how they do this. Because if they've got the best medicine in the world, then why is it such a secret?"

"I can't Adam and Eve it," Rose replied.

The Doctor blinked at her. She'd sounded funny on the phone, too, he remembered now. "What's, what's—What's with the voice?"

Her smile was painfully fake when she tossed her hair back over her shoulder. "Oh, I don't know. Just larking about. New Earth, new me."

The idea of being new was still touchy, so the Doctor grinned instead of pushing for a better answer. "Well, I can talk. New New Doctor."

"Mmm, aren't you just."

Before he realised what she was doing, Rose grabbed his head and pulled him into a kiss. Her lips moved persuasively against his for a few glorious seconds, and he automatically leaned into her, trying to touch as much of her as possible.

It was only after she released him and he'd watched her saunter away that he realised something was wrong. Well, truthfully it was after he licked his lips and tasted something very… not-Rose—a metallic tang that he'd never tasted on her before.

He immediately started analysing the possibilities, even as he followed Rose over to the computer terminal. It was certainly Rose's body standing beside him, and Rose's voice recommending he try the installation protocols, but this wasn't Rose.

 _Which means someone is controlling her mind,_ he realised, his anger building when he considered how much danger she was in.

oOoOoOoOo

Alone in the TARDIS at last. "How are you feeling?" the Doctor asked Rose as he took them into the Vortex after leaving Cassandra to die in her own arms.

"How do you mean?" Rose asked, but she wasn't looking at him. He watched her for a moment, saw the way her fingers traced random patterns on the console, and his gut clenched.

"Rose."

She took a deep breath and looked up at him. "My head hurts a little," she admitted. "An' there's something… things are just messed up in there. Cassandra rummaged through my memories so she could pretend to be me, and…" Rose shrugged.

The Doctor was too familiar with the sensation Rose couldn't put into words—the oiliness of having another consciousness in your own mind without your permission, and the vague sense of wrongness that lingered, even after they were gone. But what had happened to Rose was different than any of the times he'd been possessed, and the fear that Cassandra could have seriously harmed Rose's mind wouldn't be ignored any longer.

He snagged her hand and started for the medbay. "Psychografts have been outlawed on every civilised world for a very good reason," he said, trying to keep his anger from seeping into his voice. He wasn't upset with Rose at all. "The human mind isn't made to be compressed like that, and it can cause permanent damage."

"Yeah, I remember you saying that when… earlier." Rose sat down on the table without being told, and the Doctor slipped his jacket off and selected a setting on the sonic screwdriver.

"I wondered how much of that you remembered," he murmured as he swept the sonic slowly around her head.

"I remember kissing you," Rose teased, her tongue peeking out of her mouth.

The Doctor glanced up at her. "And that was my first clue that something was wrong," he said seriously. "You didn't…" He felt his cheeks warm. "You didn't taste like yourself. The psychograft had left a metallic aftertaste on your tongue."

Rose blushed, too. "I didn't know you were that familiar with how I taste."

The Doctor somehow managed a smirk, despite his red face. "Time Lord," he boasted. "My senses are more acute than yours, remember?"

The sonic beeped before Rose could answer, and he turned around to the monitor to pull up the results. His shoulders slumped, and Rose flew to his side to read over his shoulder.

"What is it?" she asked, unable to make heads or tails of the medical jargon she read on the screen. "What's wrong?"

"What?" The Doctor turned and looked at her. "Oh, no Rose. Nothing's wrong." Unable to restrain his relief, he cupped her face in his hands and pressed a fervent kiss to her mouth.

Rose sighed into his kiss and sank her fingers into his hair, tugging lightly and drawing a hum from the Doctor. He sucked her bottom lip into his mouth, nibbling lightly, then swept his tongue into her mouth when her lips parted.

The taste of Rose—just Rose, no psychograft—burst on his tongue. He could taste her morning tea and the cherry lipgloss she used, plus the chemical compounds left by all the emotions of the day. He wrapped an arm around her waist and rubbed circles on her back until the flavour of fear and discomfort faded as the sweet taste of pleasure and desire grew stronger.

The Doctor gradually gentled the kiss, finally pulling his mouth from Rose's and hugging her tight. "Thank Rassilon, you're fine. You're perfect—I wouldn't have known you'd been subjected to a psychograft if these test results were all I had to go on."

"Good," Rose declared. "I don't want any hint of that… thing left in my head." She yawned and turned her head so her cheek rested over his hearts.

The Doctor brushed a kiss over the top of her head. "You should go to bed," he said, barely managing to swallow the endearment on the tip of his tongue. "I think saying it's been a long day for you would be an understatement."

She giggled, then yawned again. "Yeah, kinda," she agreed. "Good night, Doctor."

Rose reached up and kissed him on the cheek, then walked out of the medbay. The Doctor watched her go, a hint of misgiving springing to mind when he remembered the times his own mind had been invaded and the unpleasant dreams that had invariably followed.

 _You'll let me know if she has a nightmare?_ he asked the TARDIS. The ship hummed an affirmative, and reassured that he'd be able to help if she needed it, the Doctor went back to the console room to tinker.

oOoOoOoOo

 _Gold light flooded Rose's vision, and her world narrowed to just one thought: getting back to the Doctor and saving him from the Daleks. She danced quickly around the console, turning dials and flipping levers without even thinking about it. The TARDIS' hum was all around her, inside her, as they took flight._

 _They landed after only a minute in flight, and at a simple thought, the doors flew open. Her thief—no, her Doctor stumbled back in shock, mouth hanging open and eyes wide. "What've you done?"_

 _Rose stepped out of the TARDIS, her gaze focused on the Doctor. "I looked into the TARDIS, and the TARDIS looked into me."_

 _"You looked into the Time Vortex."_

 _The Doctor's voice was shaking. He was afraid, but why? Couldn't he see this was what was meant to happen? Time was singing around her as events unfolded._

 _But the Doctor wasn't looking at the timelines. He was looking at her. "Rose, no one's meant to see that."_

 _"This is the Abomination!" the Dalek emperor declared, interrupting their conversation._

 _One of his Daleks tried to fire at her, but she held out her hand and the beam simply stopped._

 _"I am the Bad Wolf. I create myself," Rose recited, the words pouring out of her as they always had, as they always would. She waved her hand at the sign for the Bad Wolf Corporation, and the words shimmered. "I take the words, I scatter them in time and space. A message to lead myself here."_

 _Some of the Doctor's fear had morphed into confusion; he still didn't understand why this had to happen. This was the only way to save him. And there was more… a gift Rose didn't yet understand either, but she knew she would when the time was right._

 _She didn't realise the Doctor had moved until he took her hand. "Rose, you've got to stop this. You've got to stop this now. You've got the entire vortex running through your head. You're going to burn."_

 _The Bad Wolf—Rose and the TARDIS together—looked down at the Time Lord they both loved. "I want you safe," she said simply. "My Doctor."_

oOoOoOoOo

Rose's eyes flew open, and she was instantly aware that someone else was in her room with her. She sat bolt upright and swung her fist in the direction of the shadow, but a familiar hand caught hers.

"Rose, it's me," the Doctor said, holding her gaze. "The Doctor. You're in your room on the TARDIS. Do you remember?"

She pulled her knees up to her chest and massaged at her temples. "Yeah… yeah, I remember," she muttered. The dream played out in her memory in vivid colour, and she looked sharply at the Doctor. "I remember a lot, actually."

Something about the way Rose said that sent a frisson of worry through the Doctor. He'd been afraid for over a week that she would remember exactly how they'd taken care of the Daleks on the Game Station.

"What…" He cleared his throat. "What do you remember?"

Rose swung her legs out of bed and walked across her room to put her dressing gown on. "I'm not having this conversation in my room, in my pyjamas, Doctor," she said, her voice curt. "Let's go to the galley."

The unease in the pit of the Doctor's stomach exploded when she tilted her head as if she were listening to something he couldn't hear, and then smiled.

"Actually, I think if we go to the library, there will be tea waiting for us." She patted the TARDIS as she walked out of the room, confirming every one of his fears.

The Doctor followed her to the library, trying to think of explanations for what had happened when she'd been Bad Wolf. Mostly, he hoped he could explain why he'd hidden the memories from her in a way that wouldn't have her immediately demanding to be taken home.

As predicted, there was a tea service sitting on the coffee table when they reached the library. Rose deftly poured for both of them, then sat back on the couch with her mug and a biscuit.

"Doctor, tell me what really happened on the Game Station," she ordered. "An' I should warn you, it's coming back to me, so don't try lying. I'll know."

He rubbed at his forehead. "You… After I sent you home, you managed to open the heart of the TARDIS. You and the TARDIS merged, which is why you can talk to her now the way you can."

Rose hummed as she sipped at her tea. "I remember that," she said. "It's a weird feeling, being two people at once."

"I know," the Doctor said quietly. Rose arched an eyebrow, but he shook his head. Telling her he could relate was one thing; telling her about Zagreus was another.

She nodded. "It wasn't as uncomfortable as it mighta been, though," she added. "We both wanted one thing more than anything else—to keep you safe."

The Doctor groaned and rested his head in his hands. "I am not worth your life," he ground out. "Yours or hers, really."

The TARDIS rebuffed him sharply and Rose smacked him on the shoulder. "We happen to think you are," she retorted. "And it seems to have escaped your notice, but neither of us died."

"But you could have, Rose," the Doctor countered. "You should have. There's no way a human should be able to hold the time vortex and live. That's… That's why I had to hide the memories from you."

"I wondered when you'd get to that," she said dryly.

Rose munched on biscuit, watching him the whole time, and the Doctor squirmed in his seat. He had to tell her the truth, or she might never forgive him for going into her mind without permission—especially when she'd just been assaulted earlier that day.

"You took in the whole of the time vortex," he told her, remembering how beautiful she'd looked with the light of time dancing around her. "You could see everything—past, present, and future. Time Lords have what we call time senses that allow us to feel the flow of timelines and get glimpses of possibilities and where time is going, but you saw more than that. You saw the absolute fact of time, and the human mind isn't equipped to handle that." He drew in a breath. "A Time Lord couldn't even do it."

He snapped his mouth shut, but it was too late. Rose's eyes widened, and her hand went to her mouth. "That's why you regenerated, isn't it?" she whispered. "Because you took the vortex out of me, and that killed you. You died for me, and then when you changed, I looked at you and asked if you could change back. Oh, Doctor."

The Doctor snagged her hand and laced his fingers through hers. "No, no, Rose," he said earnestly, wanting to get rid of her guilt right away. "I understand why you were confused. I won't say it didn't hurt when you said you wanted the old me back. I think you know better than that. But you accepted me so quickly and completely. How could I hold momentary confusion against you, especially when you had no warning something like that might happen?"

Rose smiled uncertainly. "Yeah?" she asked, her eyes searching his.

"Honest." He brought her hand to his lips and brushed a kiss over the back of it, then continued his explanation. "This is the other reason the psychograft worried me, though. Having someone else in your mind, especially someone who's rummaging through your thoughts, can trigger buried memories. I was afraid you might remember the dangerous parts of being Bad Wolf."

Rose scooted closer to him and rested her head on his shoulder. "I think the TARDIS helped with that," she said. "She put this… glass partition around me, said it was to keep me safe from what Cassandra was doing."

The ship chimed, and the Doctor relaxed. Of course the TARDIS would be just as determined to keep Rose safe as he was.

"Don't think the two of you can gang up on me and lock me away any time there's something dangerous," Rose muttered.

The Doctor blinked; that was _exactly_ what he'd been thinking. He brushed off the coincidence, figuring the TARDIS had ratted him out, and told the truth.

"It might be tempting sometimes, but I wouldn't do that to you," he promised. "I honestly can't imagine doing this without you anymore, Rose. You belong here, with me."

The air vibrated with the shiver of shifting timelines, and the Doctor stared down at the woman he loved. When Rose lifted her head from his shoulder to look at him, the golden glint in her brown eyes mesmerised him.

"I do. I made my choice a long time ago, and I'm never going to leave you."

AN: Yes, that's a bit of a cliffhanger to close the story on, but this is part of a series. I'm not ready for the Doctor and Rose to really discover more about the various changes Bad Wolf made to her, and more importantly, neither is the Doctor. He's going to be ignoring anything that makes him nervous right now, until eventually something will happen and he can't ignore it any longer... or until Rose manages to break down enough of his walls to get him to really face the odd things that keep happening around her.

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